Checked Your CD-Rs Lately?

In the past, hard disk drives were small (in capacity) and costly. To make up for the lack of affordable storage, many turned to CD-Rs. As it became common to store backups and personal pictures, videos, etc. on CD-Rs, the lifespan of these discs became a concern.

According to manufacturers, CD-Rs should last for decades. Some even quoted an upper limit of 120 years based on accelerated aging tests! That sure is a long time, isn't it? But will CD-Rs really last that long?
In this update, we added 154 additional CD-Rs dating from 1999 till 2003, and revised the article to reflect the updated results. Read more at TechARP.